VISITORS to the Blue Planet Aquarium in Cheshire Oaks have until the end of this month to name their newest arrival – a two-metre-long sand tiger shark.
The massive shark, which weighs around 100kgs, arrived at the aquarium after outgrowing its former home at an aquarium in Ireland.
Following a week in the aquarium’s quarantine tank, the shark was released into the main 3.8 million litre Caribbean Reef display.
Blue Planet Aquarium’s Paul Renolds said: “The new arrival is doing really well and has settled in very quickly. Our main display is something like five times larger than his old home so he’s got plenty of room to explore and continue growing.
“He’s extremely curious and will get really close to the divers during our daily feeding and diving demonstrations.
“All of our resident sand tiger sharks have got names and so we thought it would be nice to get the visitors involved with naming our latest addition.
“There have already been a few suggestions from team members but we’re hoping our visitors will provide us with some better alternatives,”
“Ideally we’d like the name to reflect the fact that the shark came from Ireland and maybe its naturally curious nature,” he added.
The ‘name the shark’ competition will be running until the end of April and visitors will be able to post their entries into a special sharkbox alongside the aquarium’s giant Aquatheatre viewing window.
A team of judges from the aquarium zoological team will choose a winner and, as well as having the honour of naming their very own shark, they will also win a year’s family pass to the aquarium.
Blue Planet Aquarium is home to Europe’s largest collection of sharks. There are no fewer than 30 different species of sharks and rays on display ranging from native bull huss and dogfish to exotic guitar sharks.
